dynamicC cOllaboration to geNeralize eCo-friEndly tRajecTOries

Project Information

CONCERTO

Grant agreement ID: 101114785

DOI

10.3030/101114785

EC signature date 13 June 2023

Start date 1 July 2023

End date 30 June 2026

Funded under

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Total cost

€ 9 039 267,50

EU contribution

€ 5 054 856,64

Coordinated by

THALES LAS FRANCE SAS
France

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CONCERTO (dynamicC cOllaboration to geNeralize eCo-friEndly tRajecTOries)

Reporting period: 2023-07-01 to 2024-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The CONCERTO project, standing for dynamiC cOllaboratioN to generalize eCo-friEndly tRajecTOries, aims to develop two solutions contributing to maximize the opportunities for CO2 reduction and introducing non-CO2 impact management in daily operations. CONCERTO gathers 23 partners and is part of the EU Aviation Green Deal Flag Ship, which aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The project aims to make eco-friendly trajectories an everyday occurrence in order to reduce the total CO2 and non-CO2 impact of aviation. The project aims to integrate green ATC capacity into the system, with the appropriate level of automation, and to help stakeholders balance regularity and environmental performance at local and network level. To achieve this, the project will draw on cutting-edge data and climate science to enable air traffic management stakeholders to move up a gear in terms of "eco-responsibility". At the same time, the project aims to demonstrate that mitigation measures can be deployed progressively at local & network levels, in sync with scientific advances.

CONCERTO aims to deploy in a short time frame two Solutions contributing to reducing the total climate impact of aviation (CO2 & non-CO2) with
(i) a minimum impact on existing systems already in use and
(ii) a limited impact on additional workload.

To do so, CONCERTO Solutions focus on

- Detect automatically & systematically opportunities to optimize flight paths / Traffic Flows to seize each identified opportunity contributing to make eco-friendly trajectories an everyday occurrence with the appropriate level of automation to limit the impact on additional workload
- Deploy climate performance indicators into daily operations so that climate becomes a key criteria of decision & optimization, relying on total climate impact (CO2 & non-CO2)
- Optimize Traffic Flows to ensure a global climate impact reduction
- Balance ATC capacity, cost efficiency and environmental performance at local and network levels
- Use digital technologies to deploy fast, ensure inter-operability & promote dynamic collaboration/data exchange between ATC & AUs

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

I - CONCERTO Solution #1

The Solution #1 work has mainly focused on the following tasks:
- Definition of the Concept of Operations, defined & agreed with all partners
- Specification of the Solution to fit with operational stakeholders process & tools (Airlines, Air Navigation Service Providers...)
- Identification by the operational actors of the operational criterias allowing the ATC constraint relaxation
- Development, integration & testing of the Orchestrator for Eco-Friendly Trajectories started, enabling the automatic identification of first eco-friendly time slots applicable to the experimentation use cases targeted for 2025
- The Solution development, relying on agile development methodology, enabled the consortium to conduct regular workshops with operational end users to refine user interfaces & support decision making processes
- Definition of the experimentation use cases targeted for 2025 supported by the Validation Plan initialization
- Preliminary work on the impact assessment on the existing standardisation & regulation requirements to envisage the deployment of such solution

II - CONCERTO Solution #2

The Solution #2 work has mainly focused on the following tasks:
- Definition of the Concept of Operations, defined & agreed with all partners
- Specification of the Solution to fit with operational stakeholders process & tools (Airlines, Air Navigation Service Providers...)
- Deployment of methodologies to forecast and manage ECHO areas (areas subject to contrails occurence), which are regions with a high likelihood of persistent contrails and significant non-CO2 impacts.
- Integration of climate impact assessment tools, to estimate and reduce total climate effects, including persistent contrails.
- The Solution development, relying on agile development methodology, enabled the consortium to conduct regular workshops with operational end users to refine user interfaces & support decision making processes
- Definition of the experimentation use cases targeted for 2025 supported by the Validation Plan initialization
- Preliminary work on the impact assessment on the existing standardisation & regulation requirements to envisage the deployment of such solution
- A fast time simulation exercise (EXE 1) occurred on December 2024 relying on 2023 historical traffic over Borealis Airspace (16 pre-selected days).

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

I - CONCERTO Solution #1

End of 2024, the orchestrator is running over first use cases (north of France use cases) suggesting opportunities of ATC constraint relaxations allowing airspace users to benefit from optimized flight paths.
The availability of the orchestrator will enable to conduct live deployment into French Air Navigation Service Providers operational center from March 2025 for a long period of experimentation.


II - CONCERTO Solution #2

A fast time simulation exercise (EXE 1) occurred on December 2024 relying on 2023 historical traffic over Borealis Airspace (16 pre-selected days).
By analyzing more than 150,000 flights over 16 days representative of the weather and traffic conditions over the year, CONCERTO has validated the operational strategy consisting of identifying each day the areas of the airspace that are sensitive to the risk of generating condensation trails ("Eco areas"), as well as the flights that will contribute the most to global warming and modifying their trajectory in the vertical plan to avoid generating condensation trails.
Main outcomes: by modifying only 1% of flights per day, the simulations demonstrate that it is possible to avoid an average of 31,700 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per day, i.e. a reduction of 11.4% in the overall climate impact on the entire Borealis airspace, for an excess fuel consumption of less than 0.06% for all flights crossing this airspace.

In 2025, complementary experimentations will be conducted to come closer to real operations condition ("shadow mode") to assess to feasbility to apply the climate mitigation means in dayly operations.

CONCERTO Team